Benjamin Tillman

Benjamin Ryan Tillman (11 August 1847-3 July 1918) was Governor of South Carolina from 4 December 1890 to 4 December 1894 (succeeding John Peter Richardson III and preceding John Gary Evans) and a Senator from South Carolina from 4 March 1895 to 3 July 1918 (succeeding Matthew Butler and preceding Christie Benet). Tillman was a prominent leader of the Southern Democrats during the late 19th century, and he was known for his violently white supremacist views and for his leadership of a paramilitary group during the 1870s.

Biography
Benjamin Ryan Tillman was born on 11 August 1847 in Trenton, South Carolina to a family of wealthy planters, and he fell ill before he could be sent to a coastal artillery unit during the American Civil War. Tillman proved to be an adept farmer during the Reconstruction era, becoming one of the largest landowners in South Carolina (as well as the largest in Edgefield County). Tillman was known to ride around his plantation on horseback like a slave overseer, ensuring that his African-American "workers" were not slovenly. During the 1870s, he became a leader of the Southern Red Shirts, a white supremacist paramilitary group that was involved in murdering and intimidating both white and black US Republican Party voters during the 1876 and 1878 gubernatorial elections.

Political career
During the 1880s, Tillman became the leader of a movement of reformist white farmers within the reactionary Southern Democratic wing of the US Democratic Party, and he helped in the foundation of Clemson University before being elected Governor of South Carolina in 1890. During his four-year tenure as Governor, 18 African-Americans were lynched, and he was known for his vocal hatred of blacks. Tillman also threatened to prod President Grover Cleveland with a pitchfork, earning him the nickname "Pitchfork Ben". In 1895, after leaving office as Governor, Tillman was elected to the Senate, and he often insulted African-Americans on the senate floor, bragging about how he helped in killing them during the 1870s. In 1896, he received 17 electoral votes during the Democratic National Convention before the presidential election, and he lost the primaries due to a disastrous speech. He died in 1918 while still serving as a senator.